What does the weather have to do with mayonnaise? Nothing. I just had to get that out of my system! Now on to the mayo!
For some reason a lot of the recipes I've been making lately call for a little mayonnaise. I don't usually have it in the house because we don't eat it. I buy a jar for a recipe that calls for a tablespoon then I throw the jar out when it's out of date.
A month or so ago I tried a salmon burger recipe. The recipe called for 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise. I didn't want to buy a jar of mayo for 3 tablespoons! I've recently finished Michael Ruhlman's Twenty, a great kitchen resource with 20 techniques (hence the name) and 100 recipes (I've not met many recipes I didn't like) and I remembered he had a recipe for mayonnaise in the book so I pulled it out.
It sounded simple enough, beat an egg, some salt, some water and some lemon juice and slowly add oil until you have mayonnaise. I could do that, right?
I will admit my first batch was a complete disaster! Remember I was making the mayo to use in another recipe which was to be our dinner. So I was doing all of this after a full day of work and a 3 mile walk with the dogs! Patience was slim.
I started with my little immersion blender and the jar that comes with it. The jar that comes with the immersion blender is maybe 3 inches in diameter at the base and maybe 5 inches in diameter at the top, and remember the blender has to be in there too. The plan was to drizzle the oil in while blending with the stick. Yea, well, that didn't work out too well. My stick blender doesn't have an "on" switch, you have to hold it on so I'm holding the blender in one hand holding the on button down and trying to carefully pour oil into a small diameter opening with the other. I ended up with a soupy mess inside the blender jar, oil all over the counter and no mayonnaise.
On attempt number 2 I got out a big bowl with a rubber base and a good old-fashioned hand whisk and started again. It worked! My arm was sore and it took a long time but I had mayonnaise!
Since then I've found my Kitchenaid mixer works best. I only have to worry about drizzling the oil. The bowl doesn't move and the Kitchenaid takes care of the whisking!
The other thing I've found is flavored mayonnaise! I use infused olive oils from my friends at The Olive Grove Olive Oil Company instead of regular vegetable oil. Tonight I made garlic mayo. I started with the egg, salt, lemon and water and then added a cup of garlic infused olive oil.
Is that not beautiful? And it tastes terrific! It has great garlic flavor.
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